My first question is about approaching music/playing/drum parts. Previously you gave me an advice about not being afraid to play the simplest things if the song requires it. To be honest, it's sometimes hard to me. I also realized, that my playing in odd times is quite a bit rigid, jerky. So lately I started gravitating towards "smoothing out" the more complex, or broken rhythms, to make them more... digestable. Is this area (the "smoothing out") covered from the basics in your books? I'd like to start from scratch, to understand what I'm doing. I believe that should be partly the overriding-concept, isn't it? So that would be the... Rhythmic Illusions? And can you suggest other materials too for this type of practice? I'm also interested in smoothing things out through creating a different pulse/beat/groove, and not just overriding, if possible.

Secondly: I'm not sure that I can explain this in english, so bear with me! :)

Lately my first band to listen to is an australian band (Karnivool), and their drummer sometimes breaks the groove, or even starts to play a totally different pulse for (at least i thought) no reason. Than I started to break down the songs, separating the 2 guitars, and I realized: he sometimes changes his main pulse to follow, from one guitar to the other. Sometimes it's great, in other songs... to me seems unnecessary, maybe even bad.
I also know that my own playing style is a bit too dependant on the guitar pulse, I'm always trying to complement the pulse/pattern. The old-school approach. Maybe because my friend/guitarist is probably the only guitarist who I ever had a decent musical connection with, and we're playing together in various bands for the better part of the last 15 years (we're now 30). But because of this, I think my playing became... limited.
I still believe that within a barline (or rather: within a tune), the most accentuated notes of the guitar should be together with my accented drum parts (because these are the main notes that create the feel/pulse of the song, so I want to highlight those notes inside the melody), but in between those accentuated notes, my playing should be a lot more flexible. Even "moved away" from the guitars pulse if the song allows it. How could I practice that? Is that even possible to practice that?

Thank you for being so patient with everyone on this thread and continuing to participate in this extremely useful forum.

I actually have somewhat of an unusual post here, as it relates maybe a little less to most people. Your approach to rhythms are something that I find very relatable. Simply put, rhythms and patterns are how my brain processes life. Attached is one of my many tessellations I have drawn on simple graph paper, something I've done since I was in high school. Maybe you can make some sense of this? 😊 Most people see them and have a hard time identifying the patterns or what shapes are used to make them, and then proceed to ask what is wrong with me haha. To me these are like rhythmic blueprints. Some have very visible square shapes, which I would consider a "4/4" type of pattern, while some are barely identifiable, more complex rhythms. I also wanted to show you this because I understand you look to things like architecture and art for musical inspiration, and I hope that this might help! (I have plenty more if you would like to see them.) Thanks for reading, hope you're having a great day! -Brian

Written music is something I am only just starting to learn about so this will be a challenge for me.
It can be frustrating but hopefully I will get there!
On this subject does any one have any idea of where I can get resources that might help with transcribing and understanding of written drum sheets?

I don't know if my question has already been discussed here,
but anyway I wanted to know if you have like a philosophy of setting up your drums.
Can you tell me how you approach ergonomics and easy playing?
Thanks Gavin and greetings from Hamburg!

Talking of 5s to get these to groupings to land in friendly places,starting on beat 4 seems to be the order of the day.( or on a 3 to land on a beat 4). That brings me round to the topic that is the most baffling at the mo(now that ive got 5/16 and 7/16s note loops going all over the place )where to start them and where are they coming out at ?the (1).2.(3).4.5 type of feel i can hear,the rest are a bit freaky.

Do you feel the same about a group of 3's? Probably not. Work them out in every position so you can start them wherever you want and don't lose track of 4/4 underneath it. Then you can find a way out of them by adding or subtracting small amounts to come back to the downbeat.

when they head off into triplet format i need to get my pen out : /

absolutely. Write them out in triplets - and starting in different places.

last question the 3 over ride on the 7/8,did you write that out at first or just feel it ?

initially I wrote it out to see where all the beats relate to each other.

Hi szokematyi

My first question is about approaching music/playing/drum parts. Previously you gave me an advice about not being afraid to play the simplest things if the song requires it. To be honest, it's sometimes hard to me. I also realized, that my playing in odd times is quite a bit rigid, jerky. So lately I started gravitating towards "smoothing out" the more complex, or broken rhythms, to make them more... digestable. Is this area (the "smoothing out") covered from the basics in your books?

I cover the Overriding concept in the DVD Rhythmic Horizons.
I still believe that within a barline (or rather: within a tune), the most accentuated notes of the guitar should be together with my accented drum parts (because these are the main notes that create the feel/pulse of the song, so I want to highlight those notes inside the melody), but in between those accentuated notes, my playing should be a lot more flexible. Even "moved away" from the guitars pulse if the song allows it. How could I practice that? Is that even possible to practice that?

sorry but I don't really understand the question.

Hi BrianBjur

I actually have somewhat of an unusual post here, as it relates maybe a little less to most people. Your approach to rhythms are something that I find very relatable. Simply put, rhythms and patterns are how my brain processes life. Attached is one of my many tessellations I have drawn on simple graph paper, something I've done since I was in high school. Maybe you can make some sense of this?

I can see the relation to rhythm and visual patterns. Interesting stuff.

Hi tamhewittbaker

Written music is something I am only just starting to learn about so this will be a challenge for me. On this subject does any one have any idea of where I can get resources that might help with transcribing and understanding of written drum sheets?

are you having drum lessons? A good teacher can guide you well with this and once you have a good grasp of it you should start to make transcriptions and have a teacher check it.

Hi crystalfunky
I wanted to know if you have like a philosophy of setting up your drums. Can you tell me how you approach ergonomics and easy playing?

seek the path of least resistance and put everything within easy reach. There's no point wearing yourself out unnecessarily and wasting too much energy. Everyone is different - so try to make yourself comfortable for your size, height and reach.

Hi humberto

First: Tell me more about your new book and if is possible i get a sign one ... and where i buy

I came up with this 12 stroke fill during one of my jam out sessions. I have never transcribed anything before, but I was wondering if I even came close to getting it right. I recorded this on my Yamaha DD-65C electric kit.

I apologize for the amateur photo, but I have no transcribing software, or the patience to learn it at the moment.

Attached is a sound clip of the fill, and a picture of my hand drawn transcription.

Wow this is incredible! Gavin Harrison! You are incredible! You are in my top 5 drummers of all time, massive fan of porcupine tree! Not everyday you get an opportunity like this, however I have no questions for you as you let your drumming do the talking. You have amazing groove (being a metal drummer striding to become a prog drummer), it is what I'm working on now and adopting your style with Steve Judd (Karnivool), Danny Carey (Tool) and Lucius Borich (Cog) has helped me a LONGGGGG way but of course am still learning something everyday about groove, I love your chops! Your flavour is so unique and incredible, I find it sometimes challenging to create something 'new' but it seems like creativity is no problem for you, also a massive fan of your double bass work (reminds me a lot of Tomas Haake). Anyway I'm a massive fan (hopefully the biggest in Australia) and you're a massive influence on me, keep up the great work!

Here is a transcription of your fill. I wrote it in 3/4, but maybe your "feeling" was different.
Hope that help !

Alex P.

Awesome! I always wanted to see what it looked like tabbed out with the normal staff and notes. Thank you!

I was playing along to a song programmed on the kit, I usually threw that fill in for a 4/4 space, however, I might have started it a quarter note too late... haha It's frustrating when you can't figure out what you did because you were just "feeling it" at the time.

You are hands down my favorite modern drummer and one of my favorite drummers of all time. Thanks for being such an inspiration!

Apart from your amazing technical skills, one thing I have noticed in your recordings and live performances is that your set always seems to be mixed to perfection. I don't know how much mixing you actually do yourself, but any time I hear a recording of you, the drums always have such a flawless and unique sound. As a multi-instrumentalist and aspiring composer/audio engineer, getting drums to sound good on recordings is one of my biggest challenges. I am sure a lot of it has to do with the equipment and mics, but apart from that, do you have any drum mixing tips?

Also, as a completely unrelated question: some people say that success in the music industry comes partly from talent, partly from networking and connections, and partly from luck. Do you agree, and if so, how much of each of those would you say contributed to your success and career?

Anyway, whether you get to my questions or not, I just wanted to say thank you for making such great music. I actually got to meet you briefly before the Deadwing release concert in Los Angeles. I was probably only 10 years old then, and my dad introduced me to you and the other members of Porcupine Tree. At the time, I simply dug the music and was happy to meet the musicians. Had I known how big of an influence you and that band would be on my overall growth as a musician, I would have cherished that moment so much more. Hopefully I get the chance to see you play live again in the future.

Wow this is incredible! Gavin Harrison! You are incredible! You are in my top 5 drummers of all time, massive fan of porcupine tree! Not everyday you get an opportunity like this, however I have no questions for you as you let your drumming do the talking. You have amazing groove (being a metal drummer striding to become a prog drummer), it is what I'm working on now and adopting your style with Steve Judd (Karnivool), Danny Carey (Tool) and Lucius Borich (Cog) has helped me a LONGGGGG way but of course am still learning something everyday about groove, I love your chops! Your flavour is so unique and incredible, I find it sometimes challenging to create something 'new' but it seems like creativity is no problem for you, also a massive fan of your double bass work (reminds me a lot of Tomas Haake). Anyway I'm a massive fan (hopefully the biggest in Australia) and you're a massive influence on me, keep up the great work!

thanks for the kind words

Hi Blwr

Apart from your amazing technical skills, one thing I have noticed in your recordings and live performances is that your set always seems to be mixed to perfection. I don't know how much mixing you actually do yourself, but any time I hear a recording of you, the drums always have such a flawless and unique sound. As a multi-instrumentalist and aspiring composer/audio engineer, getting drums to sound good on recordings is one of my biggest challenges. I am sure a lot of it has to do with the equipment and mics, but apart from that, do you have any drum mixing tips?

The trick is - you have to mix your drums as you are playing them. I quite often record a song and then listen back and ask myself what could be better - maybe the ride is too quiet or the hi hat is too loud. I'll record the take again and try to fix that in the way that I play or maybe change the cymbals. When I listen to just the overhead mics - the mix of the drums should pretty much be there already. Sure - there are things you can do with the balance of the mics - but it's not as good as getting it right on the drums and the way that you play them. I normally hate when engineers re-balance my drums by moving the faders all over the place - it's not representative of how I played them.
I realised that I play pretty hard - I recently did some recording masterclasses where all the students got on my drums and recorded the same song. It was very interesting to hear the difference in sound - even though we all played the same drums with the same mics and left the mix faders in exactly the same place when we listened back. It turns out that after 160 different drummers (during several sessions) that nobody played the drums to anywhere near my volume. That was a big surprise to me as I didn't think I was a particularly loud drummer. I hit the drums at that volume for the sound and internal balance that I feel is right.

Also, as a completely unrelated question: some people say that success in the music industry comes partly from talent, partly from networking and connections, and partly from luck. Do you agree, and if so, how much of each of those would you say contributed to your success and career?

I really don't know - it's a mystery to me. I never did the networking thing. The more I practised the luckier I got.

Also, as a completely unrelated question: some people say that success in the music industry comes partly from talent, partly from networking and connections, and partly from luck. Do you agree, and if so, how much of each of those would you say contributed to your success and career?

I really don't know - it's a mystery to me. I never did the networking thing. The more I practised the luckier I got.

cheers
Gavin

Wow thats really interesting. What do you mean with your last sentence?
Can you tell me/us a bit more about that? people didn't just came into your practice room right? ;)

I always be impressed with the sound of your ghost notes (even when you are playing on loud situations with PT). I always can hear the ghost notes and they are very clear sound. Is this due the way that you play the snare and/or the mixing settings?

First, thank you so much for graciously answering questions on this forum, and for providing such thoughtful and humble responses. It really means a lot to me, and I'm sure it's similar for many others here!

My question is simply this: At what point in your musical career/journey did you feel that you really started to develop your own individual voice and personality on the drums, in a way that made you and other listeners say, "Wow...this is Gavin (as embodied by the music resulting from the drums)!"-ie, when did you feel confident and mature enough to go beyond emulation of your heroes (we all have them, and we all need them!) into developing your own distinct sound and style?

I think that it's great to have people who inspire us to get better, to emulate and even copy at some level, particularly in the initial stages of musical development; but IMHO, the people who truly stand out are those who can synthesize their influences creatively into something different. And I think that you are one of the best contemporary examples of that mature, musical, innovative, creative drumming.

Hey Gavin! I had a couple questions at some point, but I can't remember them now. Instead though, I recently discovered "Peace for 4." The metric modulation in that tune is really compelling. And then I heard the fill section... and suddenly gained the urge to transcribe it. So I did. For anyone wondering how that part around 2:08 is notated, this is what I came up with.

The notes highlighted in red are ghost notes. And the one above the staff shaped like a rhombus is a china hit. Also, all four cymbal hits in the beginning should've been specialty crash-chimes and bells. Happy listening.

When you first started playing live gigs and such, how did you deal with criticism? If you played a groove that you were proud of and somebody said "that was complete rubbish!", did it ever make you feel discouraged or even angry?

I guess it would really depend on childhood factors, personality type, how sensitive one is to others approval/acceptance.

It's just a question I've been pondering for sometime, and to be honest, I was always very nervous and self-conscious when I played the few live gigs that I did. I still had fun, but I was riddled with anxiety on the inside. I'm always thinking that the audience can hear every mistake, so I go overboard trying to concentrate on NOT making a mistake, and then I lose the "feeling/groove" of the song. Would you say that's a normal feeling for the first couple times you play live?

I just bought your Signature Protean Snare Drum from Sonor. I was not able to test it yet, cause I'm travelling for business at the moment but I can't wait to try it out. When I had the chance to play it, I'll post my experiences here!

I read an article of you on the SOS Homepage about your studio, your equipment and some stuff about your recording techniques. You mentioned that you use a gate on your second snare drum mic (bottom), so that you can turn it quite loud to hear all the ghost notes. It would be really nice if you could be a bit more specific regarding the settings of the gate (treshold, ratio, attack). My guess is that you control it over the attack controller. Am I right?

"are you having drum lessons? A good teacher can guide you well with this and once you have a good grasp of it you should start to make transcriptions and have a teacher check it."

Thanks for you advice Gavin. I have made a point to look for someone that is able to help me in this way and found a teacher that had studied at drumtech in london, so thanks for helping me to make this decision.
If i may be a little bold I would ask that you include Glasgow into your clinic tours at some point, it would be awesome to see your drumming for me and many others. The guys at rhythmbase can sort you out I'm sure.
If it's a possibility please use the contact info below, I am quite sure they would be amazed to hear from you! lol

Thanks again, happy drumming and future learning,
Tam.x

Rhythm Base
31/33 Commerce Street
Glasgow
G5 8AB

Telephone:
0141 429 3799

Last edited by tamhewittbaker; 04-06-2014 at 03:38 AM.
Reason: addition

thank you David for the quick answer. I recognized that it's quite a long way between setting up the first mic and and getting a nice drum sound. I got to the point where I rely on useful basic tips and doing the rest on my own, trusting my ears and comparing the results to professional drum recordings. I know there are a lot of one ways streets but the learning factor to me is more important than the quickest-way-to-get-a-perfect-drum-sound.

So long story short, my question about the gate-settings is kind of obsolete at the moment, cause I also found a way to make it sound good without any gate.

But if you or Gavin or anyone else have any must-have-insider-tips, I would be flattered if you share them with me and other not so experienced forum users.

For Gavin: I love the protean Snare Drum. My old one wasn't really a good instrument but I never expected the difference to be so big! It simply sounds if it came from another galaxy compared to my former Snare! Thanks to you and the Sonor crew, for making me smile whenever hitting this fantastic piece of wood and metal!

Hi Gavin.
My god. I've spent the past month devouring Porcupine Tree. Between you and Steven Wilson I am completely rejuvenated and inspired. I have pre-ordered your book, my Protean snare should land in the next 2 weeks, I'm seeing your clinic on Monday and am having breakfast with you and the other South African Sonor endorsees on Tuesday...
It has been, and will be, a complete honour. What an incredible band PT is, I cannot get enough of it. I'm so looking forward to Rhythmic Composition.
Cheers brother :)

Wow thats really interesting. What do you mean with your last sentence?
Can you tell me/us a bit more about that? people didn't just came into your practice room right? ;)

No I was just joking. The more practise you do the better you get.

Hi Rítmico

Do you add a compression effect in your snare drum?
If yes, could you share your settings (attack, release, etc...)?

Attack 2:00
Ratio 7:1
Release 100

I always be impressed with the sound of your ghost notes (even when you are playing on loud situations with PT). I always can hear the ghost notes and they are very clear sound. Is this due the way that you play the snare and/or the mixing settings?

A compressor will help a bit - but you have to play them really clearly, precisely and at the right volume for the song and it's surrounding instruments.

Hi AllenS

At what point in your musical career/journey did you feel that you really started to develop your own individual voice and personality on the drums, in a way that made you and other listeners say, "Wow...this is Gavin (as embodied by the music resulting from the drums)!"-ie, when did you feel confident and mature enough to go beyond emulation of your heroes (we all have them, and we all need them!) into developing your own distinct sound and style?

that's a tough question. I guess I always sounded like me to some degree - I was lucky to be in musical situations where people were asking me to create my own drum parts and I just followed my nose.

Hi K_HiHats

I recently discovered "Peace for 4." The metric modulation in that tune is really compelling. And then I heard the fill section... and suddenly gained the urge to transcribe it. So I did. For anyone wondering how that part around 2:08 is notated, this is what I came up with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoAfOpf6t00
The notes highlighted in red are ghost notes. And the one above the staff shaped like a rhombus is a china hit. Also, all four cymbal hits in the beginning should've been specialty crash-chimes and bells. Happy listening.

It took me quite sometime to understand what you've written there. Your software has made a REALLY bad job of displaying it. It is almost impossible to read the way that the stems are grouping the notes...but it seems that the values are correct - so well done!!! You don't need to write ghost notes in different colours. You can just put brackets "( )" around the ghost notes.

Hi euphoric_anomaly

When you first started playing live gigs and such, how did you deal with criticism? If you played a groove that you were proud of and somebody said "that was complete rubbish!", did it ever make you feel discouraged or even angry?

Yes I know this feeling well. I was criticised many times in the early musical situations I was in. Shouted at by band leaders and older members of the band and occasionally fired from the job. I felt discouraged...but not enough to give up. My father was very supportive and it drove me to practise harder.

Hi Christian Beck

I read an article of you on the SOS Homepage about your studio, your equipment and some stuff about your recording techniques. You mentioned that you use a gate on your second snare drum mic (bottom), so that you can turn it quite loud to hear all the ghost notes. It would be really nice if you could be a bit more specific regarding the settings of the gate (treshold, ratio, attack). Another guess is that you use the top mic channel as side-chain for the gate of the bottom mic. How close am I ?

Yes that's correct - I haven't done it in a long while. That article was written in 1998 I think.
I love the protean Snare Drum. My old one wasn't really a good instrument but I never expected the difference to be so big! It simply sounds if it came from another galaxy compared to my former Snare! Thanks to you and the Sonor crew, for making me smile whenever hitting this fantastic piece of wood and metal!

Glad you're enjoying it !!!

Hi Bradley Cooper
My god. I've spent the past month devouring Porcupine Tree. Between you and Steven Wilson I am completely rejuvenated and inspired. I have pre-ordered your book, my Protean snare should land in the next 2 weeks, I'm seeing your clinic on Monday and am having breakfast with you and the other South African Sonor endorsees on Tuesday...
It has been, and will be, a complete honour. What an incredible band PT is, I cannot get enough of it. I'm so looking forward to Rhythmic Composition.

It was very nice to meet you - I hope you enjoy the snare drum and the book !!!!

I couldn't find an answer to my question on this forum, so I'm gonna put it here;
As we are currently starting recording drums for our first CD, I'm using PT's cd Fear of a blank planet as reference CD for the drum sound of my kit (Yamaha Recording custom).
I'm wondering which snaredrum you're using on the title track? Is it miked with a Shure SM57?

a fill in Fear of a Blank Planet, just before the hard part, at about 5:00-5:05
a fill in Hatesong (from Arriving Somewhere dvd), just before Steven starts to sing
a little fill in What Happens Now? (studio version), just at about 3:48

I hope I am hearing it all well, is it the same 'trick' in all these fills? How do you play that? This is really tasty and I would like to learn to do this. Could you explain a little bit about it?

Out of curiosity, are there any music genres that you shy away from? For example, if you were approached by a metalcore band, would you go for it? What if you were asked to be a session drummer for a "top" 40 "artist"?

Hi Gavin, although not directly related to a thread about you, I'm wondering what your impression of Simon's London gig with Hiromi is? I think you were there on the Sunday night. Room sound challenges aside, I thought it was inspiring on many levels to say the least :)

Hi Drizzle
I noticed while watching some clips on Youtube that your hi-hats seem very loose.
Does it have to do with where the bottom cymbal is resting on?Is it standard or did you change it somehow? What is the trick ? :)

There's no trick - they just sound better when you let them breathe. In that clip I am hitting them pretty hard (they are resting on a normal big wide hi hat bottom cymbal felt) - so if the top cymbal was clamped really tight - I would probably have broken it. I like to do a lot of pedaling and splashing with my left foot - and it doesn't work so good if the top cymbal is clamped tight. It's also important to not have the top cymbal so slack that there's a gap between the cymbal and it's felts. Once I get the balance right I tighten the two locking discs above the top cymbal with a pair of pliers so they can never work their way loose.

Hi MWGSdrummer

As we are currently starting recording drums for our first CD, I'm using PT's cd Fear of a blank planet as reference CD for the drum sound of my kit (Yamaha Recording custom).
I'm wondering which snaredrum you're using on the title track? Is it miked with a Shure SM57?

The snare drum was a 1982 14x5 Yamaha Recording Custom with rounded bearing edges on top and bottom. It was the inspiration behind my Sonor signature snare drum "Protean". Although the Protean is greatly improved over that old Yamaha RC drum. Yes the close mic was a Shure SM57. There are SO many other factors in getting that drum sound on that album - please don't think that if you use a Yamaha RC snare drum with a SM57 that it will sound anything like that record.

Hi scottishhaggis

a fill in Fear of a Blank Planet, just before the hard part, at about 5:00-5:05
a fill in Hatesong (from Arriving Somewhere dvd), just before Steven starts to sing
a little fill in What Happens Now? (studio version), just at about 3:48
I hope I am hearing it all well, is it the same 'trick' in all these fills? How do you play that? This is really tasty and I would like to learn to do this. Could you explain a little bit about it?

They are of course three completely different fills. The only thing that I can hear that they have in common are snare drum ghost notes. Is that what you mean?

Hi Illusion1409

Out of curiosity, are there any music genres that you shy away from? For example, if you were approached by a metalcore band, would you go for it? What if you were asked to be a session drummer for a "top" 40 "artist"?

There isn't a genre that I shy away from - I only try to avoid what I consider to be 'bad' music - of which there's plenty of it around regardless of genre. If a metalcore or top 40 artist wanted me to play on their songs - first I need to hear the songs to see if if can connect with them.

Hi keep it simple

I'm wondering what your impression of Simon's London gig with Hiromi is? I think you were there on the Sunday night. Room sound challenges aside, I thought it was inspiring on many levels to say the least :)

I thought it was great ! Unfortunate room to play in as a lot of the detail of the drums were lost. I think it would have sounded better if I was down in the front row.

Yes, I could always hear those ghosts there and I pretty much understand that all these are different fills. I think what I meant is that you play them similarly, with same...technique? I find it difficult to explain myself on this one... :D

If it's not understantable again then lets forget it, not really a big deal.

I also wanted to mention one more important thing. I want you to know now that your interviews are very inspiring and uplifting. It seems that you always have a lot to say about everything besides drumming, things about music industry, artistry and so on. Even though you speak a lot about how long and how difficult it is to become a working drummer and you keep saying that it takes a big big effort, all this inspires me a lot, and other drummers as well I think. There are plenty of things you speak about that even non-drummers can find useful and inspiring. You are a real human drummer.

I thank you for keeping this alive, taking time answering all our questions and being patient.

I'm wondering what your impression of Simon's London gig with Hiromi is? I think you were there on the Sunday night. Room sound challenges aside, I thought it was inspiring on many levels to say the least :)

I thought it was great ! Unfortunate room to play in as a lot of the detail of the drums were lost. I think it would have sounded better if I was down in the front row.

cheers
Gavin

Agreed Gavin, the room was a challenge, as I pointed out in my gig review last week. I was downstairs about half way back. It wasn't too bad, but the drums were all attack & reflection. I did take a quick listen in the gallery, & it was fairly horrible :(

How are you? First off I just want to say that are a huge inspiration to me and thanks for that. Anyway, I have a show in a few weeks and I have a solo I'm doing and i'm sort of having drummers block on what to do. I know I want it to be an open solo, not trading fours or eights. But besides that I don't know where to start. How do you approach solos and how to you make them tasteful and interesting without getting lost/ loosing the audience's attention. THanks for reading and thanks for sharing your talent with this forum.

At this point in your career, is there anything regarding music that you still have yet to approach? I think about this often as a self-taught guitarist, I hope to leave no stone unturned :) also if you and your kit are ever in the Portland area and just want to jam, feel free to get a hold of me!

Hi Drizzle
I noticed while watching some clips on Youtube that your hi-hats seem very loose.
Does it have to do with where the bottom cymbal is resting on?Is it standard or did you change it somehow? What is the trick ? :)

There's no trick - they just sound better when you let them breathe. In that clip I am hitting them pretty hard (they are resting on a normal big wide hi hat bottom cymbal felt) - so if the top cymbal was clamped really tight - I would probably have broken it. I like to do a lot of pedaling and splashing with my left foot - and it doesn't work so good if the top cymbal is clamped tight. It's also important to not have the top cymbal so slack that there's a gap between the cymbal and it's felts. Once I get the balance right I tighten the two locking discs above the top cymbal with a pair of pliers so they can never work their way loose.
......

The top-hat isn't the problem for me. In that clip your bottom hat is moving around almost like a normal cymbal after you hit it and it keeps moving for a few seconds.

If I want to achieve the same i have to hit it with a sledgehammer :)

My Pearl Eliminator hi-hat has a rubber ring with three 'spikes' so it kind of cradles the hi-hat and it doesn't leave a lot of room for it to move up and down.